Ever needed a quick easy to use and easy to program WiFi solution for the Arduino?

The grunt work has been eliminated with the field proven TCP/IP stack from vendor Microchip. Also, they bought out Zero G the Wifi chip maker. (Asynclabs wifi interface chip)

Note: The Flyport digital inputs are 5 VDC tolerant and since the digital outputs only goes to 3.3 VDC thenthere should be no problems using the digital inputs and outputs of the Flyport with the Arduino with no level conversion butother inputs/outputs you would need level conversion.

Where do we get one? How much does it cost? Will it need a shield to hook to the arduino? Where can we get the shield and how much does it cost? Many people want to use their arduino wirelessly to monitor or control something, but the connection solutions often cost more than everything else in the project combined. Does this product help address this?

I provided the link above but I will help you out on this one. If you follow the link to the openPicus main page click under buy. I chose the www.eikonsite.it because the Italian creators of the OpenPicus Flyport works at this company. They based their OpenPicus Flyport design and IDE software on the "ease of use" of their other Italian brothers, which made the first Arduino.

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Where can we get the shield and how much does it cost?

There is no shield. Please read the web site information. It has 5 DI, 5 DO, I2C, SPI and 4 analog 10 bit inputs. You can use this standalone or attach an Arduino to it to process your user application.Note: In the standalone mode you provide small "C" code for the I/O. They have examples on the website.

The cost is in Euros (no VAT tax should be charged for US citizens) I bought the Flyport module and the nest for 49 + 19 Euro ~ 68 Euro or about $115.00 USD (includes secure shipping).

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but the connection solutions often cost more than everything else in the project combined.

You also found this catch22 out. The problem of having an Arduino to take care of the TCP/IP stack communications and also the user application at the same time will cause more problems then it is worth. The OpenPicus Italian design team used a RTOS, a PIC24, ZeroG Wifi and the field proven TCP/IP stack that is rock solid.I have looked at Asynclabs, Netduino plus and the FEZ WiFi solutions and they all fell way short in having a rock solid design.

If you ever wanted to be an IT expert (information technologies expert) then this OpenPicus Flyport will lead you into that profession. You will have to know the PC router basics to even put the Flyport module online to the world wide web. Not to worry, I started out being an IT moron and the knowlege I have gained from the Flyport was in-measurable. You have to do a lot of reading even though the OpenPicus IDE does most of the work for you. Not knowing the difference between AdHoc (peer to peer) and infrastructure (wifi access point) network connections will stop you dead in your tracks.

May I suggest the following links (along with the OpenPicus website information) to get you up to IT speed.

Just started another OpenPicus Flyport Wifi project. Flyport Garage Door Controller Design Spec. and Features R1.

Using the OpenPicus Flyport to control a garage door takes some very careful thought and design.It is not just the matter of hooking up one Flyport WiFi controller output to control the garage door!There is a Ford commercial, on TV, that shows this guy trying to impress his friend on his new car.He calls his wife, which is boarding an airplane, and ask her to do it again. She reaches for herphone and activate the car's engine and its door locks. She did not even have password authenticationon her phone! I find this commercial funny because before I would allow someone to enter in my "man cave" or garage entrance by remote web server control they would have to pass some of most complex security software algorithms. Breaking into Fort Knox would be a lot easier!

My Flyport Garage Door Controller has the following features:

Any PC, iphone/ itouch can be used as another garage door remote from any where in the world!

The Flyport garage door controller allows:

Neighbors to gain entry to borrow tools and to steal beer from the frig. UPS/Fed-ex personnel to deliver important heavy packages.House re-entry if accidentally lock-out from the house.Visiting relative(s) to enter the house while you are gone.

Precision temperature controlled RTC runs for eight years of un-attended operation. Has automatic DST times. (Daylight saving times pre-programmed) Projected clock error in 8 years is only +- 8 minutes! After eight years the lithium 3 v dc battery only needs changed and the time slightly adjusted.

Garage door controller automatically closes the garage door during the late or morning hours for security. (uses the precision RTC - user adjustable)

Garage door controller shows, on the web server, the garage door open/close counts for the day. (Resets at midnight) Used as a security spy.

Garage door controller PIR motion sensor also checks for humans in the garage. This status is also displayed on the webserver page.

Controller analog ambient light sensor also checks the garage door state and whether the lights are on in the garage.

Extremely high levels of security are designed into the Flyport software to to prevent unauthorized garage door access. User/password authentication, key press sequence access, pre-programmed time/hour enables, access failure timeouts prevents hackers, dweebs, geeks and cyber criminals to just give up or to go completely insane. (There are other security measures that I cannot mention but you get the point of having proper security)

Pending door closure indicators (LED and buzzer) flash and buzz to warn local family members, for safety ahead of time, that the garage door will be activating.

The OpenPicus Flyport WiFi garage door controller does not interfere with the main garage door system. Controller failure will not disturb any of the garage door system.

Controller has a local override switch, for safety, which disables the remote web server garage door activation. The web server will still display all data.

Special input "fully open" and "fully close" fail-safe limit switches indicate, on the web server at all times, the state of the garage door eg open, close, garage door in motion or traveling. Having only one limit switch does not cut it!

Diagnostic checks for limit switches, RTC and override switch add another layer of safety to the garage door controller. Any diagnostic fault failure will prevent remote garage door activation. All faults are displayed on the web server page for easy troubleshooting.

Additional safety controller algorithms prevent garage door activation until there is a "quiet period" after which a local garage door activation has occurred. This prevents door closure on family members that just arrived at home.Note: As an additional safety, all new garage doors (in the USA) must have an object detection system installed. (Infrared eyes) This will prevent door closure on any person/object/animal near the garage door entrance. For 100% safety protection, install a TCP/IP camera in the garage.

I came to the stark conclusion that testing the Flyport Wifi Garage Door controller,I would need to build a complete testing simulator to debug my software thoroughly beforeever attemping to wire up this controller to my garage door. I could haveruin my garage door controller with all the testing that I performed in debuggingthe software.

Picture of testing simulator below.

"Never trust an Internet bully who insults and makes fun of your level of intelligence."

The next picture is the "reduced" Flyport Wifi Garage Door Controller wired ontoa perfboard. After thoroughly testing this perfboard controller, I will thenplaced it into an enclosure and wired up to the garage door.

Notice, in the picture, I made use of small electronic modules, which I could not duplicate for the same cost. These modules are very inexpensive, well built andengineered. The PIR module has a adjustable pot for increasing the time delay forPIR motion detection. The relay driver has even a indicator LED for relay activation.I was more than willing to wait for the standard 10 day shipping time for theseinexpensive modules.

Your project is great! You mentioned your post the flyport can work with arduino. I am now testing the flyport and need to send a command ,i.e text string to arduino. What interface should I use, I2C or UART? Do you have any example for the C code for flyport. Can we use the arduino library in the flyport?